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In The Pathfinder Project '' |image= |series= |production=40840-266 |producer(s)= |story= Brannon Braga |script= Phyllis Strong and Mike Sussman |director=David Livingston |imdbref=tt0708851 |guests=Dwight Schultz as Reginald Barclay Richard Herd as Admiral Owen Paris Barry Gordon as Arden Broht Joseph Campanella as Arbitrator Lorinne Vozoff as Irene Hansen Juan Garcia as John Torres Robert Ito as ' John Kim' Irene Tsu as Mary Kim Brock Burnett as Male N.D. Jennifer Hammon as Female N.D. and Heather Young as Female Sickbay Crewmember |previous_production=Friendship One |next_production=Natural Law |episode=VGR S07E20 |airdate=18 April 2001 |previous_release=Q2 |next_release=Friendship One |story_date(s)=54732.3 (2378) |previous_story=Q2 |next_story=Friendship One }} =Summary= A new method of communications allows Voyager to contact home for 11 minutes each day with live sound and pictures as opposed to the previous sound and data only. Each crew member is given three minutes to use this time on a rotation which is selected by drawing lots. In the holodeck the Doctor edits his holonovel Photons Be Free and, pleased with his work, he saves the file. He plans to use this new method of communication to publish his work in Federation space. Tom Paris asks the Doctor to let him preview Photons Be Free, set on the fictional USS Vortex a Starfleet ship lost in the Delta Quadrant. The protagonist of the story — a holographic doctor — wears a huge cumbersome backpack-like mobile emitter to get around and is constantly mistreated by his crewmates. Worse, each member of the crew is a thinly veiled allusion to an actual crewman but portrayed as being cruel or obnoxious—for example the Tom Paris character is a self-serving adulterer, Harry Kim is a hypochondriac and Captain Kathryn Janeway is a tyrant and murderer. As a further homage to the mirror universe Tuvok's character wears a goatee. The senior crew plays through the novel one by one. When Janeway sees the fate of the fictional doctor she orders a meeting. The Doctor, while insisting that the story was not based on his crewmates, claims his novel was meant to highlight the plight of Mark I holograms back home. The Doctor, a Mark I hologram, does not like the fact that the other holograms are now reduced to menial tasks. Going back to the holodeck to work on his novel, the Doctor discovers it has been replaced by a parody where he is a boorish slacker who drugs a patient, reminiscent of Seven of Nine, to take advantage of her. He confronts Tom Paris who explains that he made it in order to show how hurt the other members of the crew were when they heard the Vortex portrayals of them. This, and a talk with Neelix, convinces him to edit his work so that it is more fictional. He does not wish the entire Federation to see his friends in a negative light. The issue seems to become moot when Admiral Paris from Earth lets Captain Janeway know that Photons Be Free is already being distributed without the Doctor's permission by Ardon Broht, his intended publisher, and people are wondering how fictional it really is. When Broht refuses to recall the holonovel an arbitration hearing is conducted by long distance. After several days the arbiter rules that the Doctor is not yet considered a person under current Federation law but is an artist and therefore has the right to control his work. Jump to a few months later in the Alpha Quadrant, to an asteroid where several EMH Mark I's perform menial labor. One of them suggests to another that it should watch Photons Be Free next time at the diagnostic lab. =Errors and Explanations= Nit Central # Richie Vest How can an alien be publishing the Dixon Hill novels when they began in the 1930s. Keith Alan Morgan (Kmorgan) on Thursday, April 19, 2001 - 1:45 am: The Doc's publisher also publishes the Dixon Hill series? Correct me if I'm wrong, but since the Dixon Hill stories were originally published in the 1930's & 40's, they would be in the Public Domain centuries before this story so that any publisher would have a right to publish them if they chose to. Now maybe Tom referred to a series of Dixon Hill holonovels inspired by the original stories, but again if the source material is in the Public Domain any holonovel publisher could produce a series. Same goes for Tom's suggestion of a Captain Proton series. # Rene on Tuesday, April 17, 2001 - 8:02 pm: Sheesh...how come Tom Paris wasn't in the room when they first established contact with Admiral Paris? You'd think he'd want to talk to his father. Corey Hines on Tuesday, April 17, 2001 - 11:57 pm: Also, when the hearings were finished, Paris was in the room and his father was at the hearing, one would think since everything was over, they could talk. # Corey Hines on Tuesday, April 17, 2001 - 11:57 pm:''Couldn't they use the same arguement that gave Data his rights for the Doctor's case? 'bioforce on Wednesday, April 18, 2001 - 8:32 pm: Corey, I wondered this myself. Nobody in this entire episode brings up the precendent set in Measure of a Man (TNG) in regards to Data. You would think that would be the first thing Tuvok of all people would bring up. It would be the first thing I would mention. JackKnight on Wednesday, April 18, 2001 - 10:20 pm: Regarding the Measure of a Man similarity: it sounded at several points like they were straying into the same arguments--Janeway almost brought up Picard's slavery defense, which was, IMO, much more persuasive than her own--but with superficial alterations. I suppose it couldn't really be helped. It was a little funny to see her championing the Doc's rights so passionately, after hearing her compare him to a toaster (replicator?) in Latent Image. All I can say is, it's a good thing the publisher's lawyer (I didn't see one--was he defending himself?) didn't get to cross-examine Janeway! "Isn't it true that you once reprogrammed him and denied him the very rights you now say he deserves?" "crying YES! I admit it! Save me--he's threatened to infect me with the Phage if I don't defend him!" Speaking of defense, I was surprised that Tuvok got tripped up in his "artist" reasoning. What happened to logic? Do his inadequacies in Security extend to his intellectual training? And Since when has Starfleet been enslaving holograms? I remember the one mention of Mark I's scrubbing somesorta plasma ducts in Life Line", but I'm fairly certain there has never been mention of large-scale mining operations. The only times we've seen the type of holographic oppression alluded to here are in Revulsion, with the alien hologram who kills the his keeper "organics" (a term the Doctor uses in this episode with shocking nonchalance, considering the murderer/hologram's use of it--he could easily have substituted another word) and in Flesh and Blood, when the runaway holograms "liberate" some underdeveloped "brothers" from an alien ship. This "oppression" the Doc felt was fine when it was confined to the DQ and set in the context of the Doctor vs. the rest of the crew (e.g. Latent Image), but it's a little sudden for the AQ. I mean, if their computer systems are sophisticated enough to operate that many holograms (as complex as they are), there are almost undoubtedly more efficient ways to mine using the same technology. But that's what I always wondered about the Doc, too: he can do whatever the ship's systems can do, so how come he has to walk over to an instrument tray, when he can just automatically beam the instrument over to his hand, without moving one step, let alone verbally asking an organic assistant to retrieve an instrument *for* him? Or, for that matter, why not just make holographic or replicated instruments appear in his hands? Or turn his hands into instruments? Or interface with the medical bay's sensors to scan a patient and transfer the information to him directly? My point is, although the holo-slave thing looks like it could shape up to be entertaining enough, it might run dangerously close to rehashing material better presented in TNG (not that that hasn't been done before on VOY), and it seems awfully forced. Speaking of other shows and holograms, why are these holo-miners even *aware* of their true natures? Why give them that self-knowledge? I strongly doubt it to be necessary for mining purposes. I'm sure the whores in the Vulcan Love Slave holosuite series aren't self-aware (imagine them going on strike and taking over DS9!), and nobody--forgive the pun--gives a flying •••• about *them*. The Undesirable Element on Thursday, April 19, 2001 - 4:51 pm: I'm thinking that they didn't bring up "Measure of a Man" because that episode made no sense anyway. It was stated (in Encounter at Farpoint I believe) that Starfleet verfied Data as a sentient being when the accepted him into Starfleet Academy. Then they brought up the exact same arguments in "Measure of a Man." (This stuff is all in Phil's Guide) Anyway, that episode was just created so that we the viewers could see what essentially took place years earlier. Personally, I'm glad they chose to avoid comparing the Doctor to Data. LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, April 19, 2001 - 10:03 pm: For one thing, legal precedents and rulings are constantly being challenged. People found guilty or liable in courts invariably appeal the rulings. Pro-choicers pushed for the Roe V. Wade decision. Now pro-lifers are trying to get it reversed. The arbitrator in this episode backed down the ultimate question of whether Doc is sentient, but gave him TENTATIVE status as a person solely for the purpose of excercising his rights as an artist, perhaps out of pragmatism, perhaps out of cowardice. It's possible the admissions officers at the Academy did the same thing, perhaps giving Data some token status as a citizen without the backing of true legislative power, until Bruce Maddox made an issue of it. Just a guess.' # ''Spockania on Wednesday, April 18, 2001 - 7:38 pm: When the Doc confronts Paris about altering his program, where is his mobile emitter? It doesn't seem to be on either shoulder, which is where it normally is. I could make a few remarks about where he stuck it, but will refrain… Luigi Novi on Thursday, April 19, 2001 - 12:49 pm: Sorry, Spockania, but it is there. It's clearly on the middle of his left upper arm (where it always is) when he walks through the corridors and first meets up with Paris in the last scene of Act 3. # Lee Jamilkowski (Ljamilkowski) on Wednesday, April 18, 2001 - 8:41 pm: Chakotay has a sister? Since when? Rene on Wednesday, April 18, 2001 - 8:44 pm: Since her birth? ;) The Undesirable Element on Thursday, April 19, 2001 - 4:51 pm: Chakotay mentioned that he had a sister in Hunters. I forget how it came up. # PaulG on Wednesday, April 18, 2001 - 9:07 pm: In the holodeck, Doc Paris diagnoses one crewman with an aortic rupture and orders him to surgery. Two crewmen then WALK him over to the bed. Pardon me, but have they ever heard of a stretcher? And could a person five minutes away from death with his major artery compromised be able to stand at all? '' Josh G. on Wednesday, April 18, 2001 - 9:56 pm:'' It strains credulity (to put it mildly) that someone with such a condition would be conscious, let alone be able to move. Generally when the artery coming from your heart has a rupture in it, you're in bad shape - something the Doctor should have known when writing the program, though, as he said, it is not supposed to be a factual story...Seniram 11:44, August 18, 2018 (UTC) Is there any chance it could have been a small rupture? # Am I to assume that Torres’ mother is, indeed, dead? Josh G. on Wednesday, April 18, 2001 - 9:56 pm: Torres' mother was first established to be dead in the episode Barge of the Dead. (That was, in fact, the main feature of the plot of that ep.) ''Aaron Dotter on Wednesday, April 18, 2001 - 10:05 pm:''In the Barge of the Dead they never said positively that Torres' mother is dead, the only mention of it was in Torres' vision. In fact at the end it seems very possible that it was all in Torres' head and that her mother is really alive. It is possible that she confirmed her mother's death this over the message link but they never really said so before now, though the way they talked about her does seem to suggest that she is dead. # I can understand using holograms to mine the dilithium on the asteroid. But do they have anything more advanced than hand tools? Is there something about dilithium that bars the use of more advanced technology? Dan R. on Wednesday, April 18, 2001 - 10:30 pm: I was wondering...is it really worth putting a bunch of holoemmiters in a asteroid? I mean something that size, wouldn't u need a lot? If its so easy to fill the inside of an asteroid with emmiters then why havent we seen a starship with them on every deck? That way the EMH can get into areas that might be contaminated to help crew member out...the doc has his mobile emmiter but other starfleet EMHs dont and also what if a part of the ship was inaccesible for some reason? U could just transfer the EMH to the affected area. Kyle Powderly on Thursday, April 19, 2001 - 11:02 am: Great point. If it's too hazardous to have live people mining the place, than why have live people go in to place the emitters? And if you can just transport the emitters in place, then why can't you transport dilithium out? (Maybe there's some sort of problem with dilithium's four-dimensional crystalline structure that prevents transport of its raw form...how's that for rationalizing?) # The Doctor says this is his first chance to appreciated as an artist. Ummm, what about Virtuoso(?), where the aliens were amazed by his musical ability? That’s different – the songs he was singing in Virtuoso had been created by someone else! # Why did they have Barclay saying what he thought Dr. Zimmerman felt, instead of actually having Dr. Zimmerman testify? Did someone tell them the actor was unavailable? Jwb52z on Thursday, April 19, 2001 - 10:46 am: I thought Dr. Zimmerman would have been dead by now even with the treatments that the Doctor gave him. # Jason on Thursday, April 19, 2001 - 8:00 am: As for the decompiling his program kills him, perhaps decompiling a holo-matrix destroyes any personality programs that are not part of the original matrix. The other option is that in his decompiled state, it is easier to remove subroutines and cause a fatal error in the program. PaulG on Thursday, April 19, 2001 - 9:16 am: Jason: We have seen the term "decompile" used before in Body and Soul and it seemed to indicate deletion or destruction or, at the very least, something very bad. However, decompiling in the modern use of the word wouldn't do anything to the Doc. He might have to be deactivated during the process but the result would be a copy of the approximate holomatrix source code and a fully functional unchanged Doc. Mind you that the terminology may have changed hundreds of years into the future. But when there are words available today to describe deletion, deactivation, reseting and reprogramming of computer programs, it seems strange they would choose to redefine a word. Jwb52z on Thursday, April 19, 2001 - 10:52 am: PaulG, I think that most people think "decompile" is a synonym for "disassemble" for a computer program as in "take its subroutines and coding apart." Sophie Hawksworth on Tuesday, June 18, 2002 - 3:14 pm: Disassembly does not involve taking anything apart. It just means turning the numbers back into text form. There's nothing destructive about it. For example, if I see 6809 processor code with the numbers 86 05, I know that the original assembler instruction was LDA #05. ''Jwb52z on Tuesday, June 18, 2002 - 9:21 pm: ''Are you a computer programmer? Why does assemble mean to put something apart or gather together if disassemble does not mean the opposite? # The Undesirable Element on Thursday, April 19, 2001 - 4:51 pm: Why can they only send messages through the Astrometrics lab? Wouldn't the privacy of their own quarters be better? Given the time constraints, it would make sense for the signal to go to one location. # The Undesirable Element on Thursday, April 19, 2001 - 4:51 pm: I know it's not exclusive to this episode, but why do Voyager and the Enterprise-D have such massive deflector dishes with the glowing blue around them, while the Enterprise-E and the Excelsior have tiny circular deflector dishes? Seems like a waste of space. SomeDude on Thursday, April 19, 2001 - 10:00 pm: Well the Enterprise-D is an older design ship and mebbe the deflector technology is a bit out of date now, or it could be for it's massive dimension (42? Decks)... As for Voyager... it's a smaller ship (15 Decks) so it's deflector size isn't much of a deal... and the Enterprise-E (24 or 26 Decks) is a more advanced ship so mebbe it's deflector technology is more advanced than the Galaxy-Class type... or something... ' # ''The Undesirable Element on Thursday, April 19, 2001 - 4:51 pm: Isn't it ironic that they remembered Seven's aunt that was mentioned in Bliss. However, in that episode, the telepathic pitcher plant (snicker) was trying to deceive the crew. It had no real knowledge of the Alpha Quadrant. (and Seven was unaware of this relative). It is weird that this aunt would show up in this episode. Maybe the pitcher plant (snicker) is back! (Sorry, the idea of a giant flytrap in space is what comes to mind every time I hear about that thing) '''More likely that the aunt was mentioned in the info file Janeway showed Seven in The Gift, and Seven had begun to remember her by the time Voyager encountered the creature in Bliss. # Jason on Thursday, April 19, 2001 - 10:53 pm: If the holonovel is like a major software, it can be recalled... If the holonovel requires the chip to run it (a distict possiblility) then all the chips can be recalled. LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, April 19, 2001 - 11:06 pm: What chip? KAM on Friday, April 20, 2001 - 4:15 am: In DS9 the Holoprograms were imprinted on isolinear rods that would be inserted to run the program. Presumably the holonovels would be sold in some form like that, rather than simply transmitting them from computer to computer. (I suppose as a precedent we could bring up the nonsense of having different bits of information on half a dozen different PADDS.) LUIGI NOVI on Friday, April 20, 2001 - 9:33 am: But it's possible for a buyer to copy the information from the purchased unit (CD-Rom, disk, videotape, DVD, cassette, isolinear rod, chip or gelpack) to their personal database, or onto blank chip. What the boom in home computing/entertainment and the whole Napster debacle has shown is that there is a perpetual struggle between manufacturers trying to encode their product to prevent copying, and hackers/copiers cracking those codes and that the latter eventually do break those codes. Besides, is there a legal basis for a recall of an entertainment product like a movie, book or computer program? Recalls usually revolve around consumer products like cars or toys that are proven dangerous. How could you do this with an artistic work? Do you have to register your name and address when you buy a movie in the 24th century so they can track everyone down? Sounds kinda Orwellian to me. D.W. March on Friday, April 20, 2001 - 12:33 pm: My own theory is that Napster is the reason why the Federation can recall the holonovel. This episode gives us more evidence that the "copy" command doesn't exist in the 24th century! So the only copies that were sold went to registered buyers (since there's no money) and it was easy to find them all. PaulG on Friday, April 20, 2001 - 1:54 pm: It would be possible to recall all unsold stock, assuming that copies are sold to retailers. Business purchasers probably would not be hard to track down either. As for individual buyers, I doubt there are many people that still pay cash. Yes, it does sound Orwellian but most of the buyers could be tracked down using financial records. Of course, the Federation would never *cough cough* abuse those records. There is about a 100% chance that the pirated version will survive indefinitely. Once its out there, trying to retrieve all copies is practically impossible. Public holodecks could probably be programmed to refuse to run the program however. Jason on Friday, April 20, 2001 - 2:03 pm: Well, if the copies were all recalled, then they would all be pulled off of the shelves. The spread of pirate copies would still be out there though, it is futile to think that a recall can get every copy that is out there. On the other hand, it is possible that the bulk of the Holo-Novel customers would be Starfleet and places like Quark's, that have HoloSuites. I doubt that the average Federation citizen has their own personal holodecks, so they probably go to places like Quark's and run their programs. Those places could be used to intercept recalled copies that are still out there. On starships, the recall would be easy to enforce. Just order that all copies of the program be purged from the computer, and any chips sent back to Starfleet. # Is there that big of demand for dilithium with ships that can recrystallize it? Or is that just a Starfleet ability? Perhaps there is a limit on how often dilithium can be recrystallized before they need to be replaced, similar to the limit on recharging of batteries in laptops and tablet computers. # PaulG on Friday, April 20, 2001 - 1:54 pm: Regarding the use of individual's likenesses in the holoprogram, in DS9 there was an episode where Quark wanted to copy Kira's likeness for one of his porno programs. IIRC, this was illegal without permission and Kira refused to give it. Quark eventually copied her without her permission only to be foiled by Odo. Spornan on Sunday, April 22, 2001 - 6:02 pm:''Isn't there a law/starfleet regulation that prohibits the use of someone elses likeness for anything but a training simulation? I seem to recall that was put into effect on the Enterprise after Hollow Pursuits. ''LUIGI NOVI on Sunday, April 22, 2001 - 8:07 pm: Riker angrily asserted that Reg's use of their likenesses was a violation of protocol, but Geordi pointed out that there was no regulation to that effect, and Riker answered, "Well there OUGHT to be." But regardless of whether there is any STARFLEET regulation, there already is something today called likeness rights and violation of privacy. # JAM on Friday, April 20, 2001 - 7:45 pm: Regarding the "copy" command not existing in the 24th century, it did seem to exist in the 23rd century - the Genesis Project file was copied to Kruge's Bird-of Prey fairly easily. The whole discussion brings up another point. At the end, we see the Holo-miners telling each other to check out the program. Guess it still hasn't been recalled from them, or they have a bootleg copy. Jason on Friday, April 20, 2001 - 7:57 pm:''Of course, they could have been looking at the final version of the program, and not a bootleg version. ''JAM on Friday, April 20, 2001 - 8:11 pm: Ok, well, that may be true, but if you were the administrator of that mining facility, would you let your holograms watch that (even the revised version)? It seems like to me that if they have no rights in the Federation, that they would not have a real version on hand - probably a bootleg of some type. Category:Episodes Category:Voyager